Dutch Gold, Ireland’s third most popular canned beer could soon be entirely in the hands of Dutch brewing giant Heineken. The brewer has put forward a proposal to take over sole control of Comans Beverages Limitedan importer and distributor of beers wines and spirits located in Tallaght, County Dublin.
Launched in 1995, Dutch Gold is a low-cost, imported, pilsner lager beer sold exclusively to Ireland. Despite its name the beer is brewed by Belgium based company AB Inbev. Along with Dutch Gold, Comans distributes brands like Prazky, Druids cider and Karpackie.
Comans is majority owned by the Coman family with Geoffrey Coman currently holding 50% of the shares and Thomas Coman holding 25%. Since 2016, when Comans Wholesale and Heineken’s Irish wholesale division Western Beverages Ltd merged, Heineken owns a 25% minority share in the newly formed Comans Beverages Limited.
According to Heineken, the proposed takeover “is consistent with the provisions of the agreement that established the JV [joint venture] in 2016 and would complete the phased purchase of this business.”
The acquisition, financial details of which were not disclosed, is subject to approval by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
